We carried out an unannounced inspection at Hillside Practice on 8 December 2021. This inspection was focused on the management of access to appointments.
The practice remains rated as Good overall.
The full reports for previous inspections can be found by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Hillside Practice on our website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we carried out this inspection
This inspection was undertaken in response to data we reviewed which suggested potential issues with access to appointments.
How we carried out the inspection
This inspection included a site visit. The lead inspector spoke with staff on site.
Interviews were carried out with the practice manager. We also spoke with a member of the patient participation group via telephone.
We found that:
- People were not always able to access appointments in a timely way.
- The practice offered a range of appointment types.
- Patients with the most urgent needs had their treatment prioritised.
- There were systems in place to support people who faced communication barriers to access treatment.
- There were some systems in place to monitor access to appointments and make improvements. However, the practice did not make good use of management reports provided by the practice phone systems to check if patients had good access via phone.
Whilst we found no breaches of regulations, the provider should:
- Improve the use of reports that could be generated from their telephone system to monitor how well patients could access the practice via phone.
- Implement monitoring to support the practice in understanding where there is unmet need, including reviewing the number and timing of abandoned calls and the frequency by which patients need to call back on subsequent days when no more appointments were available.
Details of our findings and the evidence supporting our ratings are set out in the evidence tables.
Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP
Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care